I know I’d given the short version of my story, heck, earlier today, but
now they wanted more.
"Well, things started in earnest when I was eight, and unlocked my
System. See, I had my good friend, Lyra, who…"
I gave them a somewhat abridged version of events, from the events
that caused me to swear my [Oath], without going into details of exactly
what was in it, to running away from home, bandits, Rangers, monsters,
classing up, kidnapping, more monsters, plagues, the capital, Ranger
Academy - the short version - becoming a Sentinel, keeping all the Sentinel
secrets. An overview of my missions, from plagues to pirates, earthquakes
to rebellions. Then the Formorians, and, well, they’d heard it from there.
It was pretty late by the time I’d finished, and Serondes had scattered
torches around the campsite, igneous rock topped by shifting Lava.
I was helping as well, with my own little glow, but I was feeling more
than a bit regretful right now that I’d taken Radiance over Lava. It was just
so versatile!
I had to remind myself that it was significantly more expensive to pull
off the same tricks, and Radiance had a different bag of tricks. Like,
Radiance light was cheap. Lava-light? Had to keep dumping large amounts
of mana into the Lava to keep it hot, and it kept radiating the heat out, while
also not being all that bright, relatively speaking.
Aegion was contently sipping another mug of mystery beer, a contently
sloshed look on his face.
"Good story, good story." He gestured towards my mug I’d been
nursing, carefully rationing every sip. It was good stuff, worth savoring and
letting the feeling flow over me with each mouthful.
"I’m totally convinced now. Elaine dear, you need to spend some time
with us, to learn what it means to be Immortal, and how it’s going to change
things for you. Plus, we need to get your level way up. That Night fellow
sounds like he’s got his heart in the right place, but is muddling through it
himself. I’m sure he’d do his best to help you, but, well…"
She trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence, and disparage
someone close to me. I could roughly fill in the blank.
"But he’s not an elf."
Still, I did appreciate them wanting to raise my level, even if it was for
selfish reasons. I wasn’t going to say no, any help in this hostile world was